Price of Glory #30 – Midrange Tokens

It's no secret that W/U Delver is the deck to beat right now. It has continued to put up good results despite having a massive target on its head. Of course, it's possible that by the time this article goes up, a key piece of the deck will have been banned and we will see its numbers plummet. Even so, many of the decks positioned to take over, such as R/G aggro and Zombies, also rely on a suite of aggressive creatures that produce some form of card advantage. With so many creature-based decks running around, I decided it might be wise to build a deck that fared particularly well against them. Here's what I came up with:

Intangible Virtue and Honor of the Pure are the tools that make this deck so effective. With one or two of these on the board, each of your tokens will be able to trade with an opposing creature, usually netting you large amounts of card advantage over the course of the game. The fact that Intangible Virtue gives vigilance is extremely relevant, allowing you to attack over an army of ground creatures without leaving yourself open for retaliation.

Increasing Devotion is an amazing finisher in this deck, usually putting at least 10 power on the board for 5 mana. The ability to flash it back for even more tokens can help you pull ahead after being mana flooded or grind out long games against control. This card is an instant army, and I've never lost a game in which I was able to cast it for its flashback cost.

Blood Artist has proven to be quite effective in Zombie decks, and I'd like to give it a try here. Although this deck doesn't have a sacrifice outlet, Day of Judgment can do the job in a pinch, and this deck produces more creatures than a Zombie deck could ever hope to. With one of these on the board, Bonfire of the Damned doesn't look nearly as scary as it used to.

Day of Judgment may seem a bit odd in a deck that produces so many creatures, but actually, that's the very thing that makes it so effective. By putting a pair of creatures onto the board, you can often lead your opponent to overcommit, letting you wipe out nearly every threat he has while only expending two cards of your own. You can also sandbag your token-makers, playing anthems for a few turns before wiping the board. Then, you can start making an army of tokens while your opponent is stuck trying to rebuild with whatever he has left.

I've praised Oblivion Ring many time in this column, and as long as it's in Standard, I'll continue to put three or four of them in almost every white deck I make. The ability to remove Sword of War and Peace is crucial to this deck, and the fact that it exiles the target makes it effective against creatures with undying as well.

Go for the Throat can still kill almost every creature you might come up against while doing so at instant speed. This lets you set traps for your opponent. You can make him waste mana equipping a Sword to a creature that won't survive to deal damage or slaughter a creature that's being pumped up by Wolfir Silverheart.

Vault of the Archangel is a great tool for pulling the game out of reach of an aggro deck. It can give you massive amounts of life each turn and destroy any chance your opponent had of racing you or burning you out. In a pinch, it can also be used defensively to allow any of your tokens to trade with a larger threat.

The Sideboard

Timely Reinforcements out of the sideboard makes the aggro matchup even more lopsided. Gaining 6 life and putting a trio of 2/2s onto the board is a lot for just 3 mana. In the early game, this card will usually take you from slightly behind to way ahead in one turn.

Celestial Purge is excellent at fighting Geralf's Messenger. You can often perform tricks like exiling it response to your opponent's Phyrexian Metamorph, forcing him to copy a lowly Gravecrawler or even one of your tokens. It's also an efficient removal spell in general, removing any black or red threat permanently for only 2 mana.

I drew Lingering Souls and attacked with my Spirits. I then cast Lingering Souls and flashed it back for four more 3/3 tokens. I passed the turn. My opponent attacked with Geist of Saint Traft. I blocked the Angel with one token and the Geist with the rest. The Geist and one of my tokens died, and he passed the turn.

This deck definitely has what it takes to beat Delver, largely thanks to the power of Lingering Souls. You can trade off Spirit tokens with your opponent's creatures until he’s run out of gas, opening the door for Increasing Devotion to come in and finish the job. Although a fast start backed up by Mana Leak can sometimes be a problem, you'll often have enough spells to force through either a pair of 2/2 Sprits or a Day of Judgment, either of which can often stop the bleeding immediately. If your local Standard tournaments are filled with creature decks, this is an excellent choice for taking them down.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.

About Mike Cannon

Mike is a longtime member of Gathering Magic, ardent casual player, and writer for From the Lab on DailyMTG.com. He has a strong focus on casual duels and budget competitive decks, and loves when you send him feedback to MTGCannon {AT} gmail.com!

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